Although to point out the sorcerer point, going by D&D, you're born as a sorcerer, due to your ancestry from dragons or some such. So I would assume you'd accidentally throw fire at something in a fit of rage or something. :P

Also, I'd kill for a peripheral that was a mecha control panel that went with it, like that old one for some mecha game.

I think that this could be a genuine excuse to start playing MMORPGs. With fully customizable robots, but limits would need to be set. Eg Can't have a jetpack and transform into a vehicle, for instance.

I think it would also work very well as an FPSRPG. Instead of needing to put a limit on how far the player can advance, you give them the ability to choose certain skill sets at one time. It would also make sense because then you could have different classes of weapon but are upgraded with different things, but you choose which ones to have as well, including your loadout, etc. So it could be something like either a machine gun or a sniper rifle, high-power revolver-thing or a machine pistol, jetpack or transform, etc. I think that would work quite nicely.

Thereīs actually a Mecha MMORPG in the works - the nameīs MECHSCAPE (a mecha game by the guys that made runescape for those who havenīt guessed this by the name) but besides some concept art the the promise that itīs going to be "totally different" from Runescape nothing is known at this point

Kinda sounds like EVE Online, except with Mechas instead of Interstellar Spacecraft. Equipment, levels are for proficiency with equipment/related skills, etc. Just taken from space and applied to a terrestrial context.

I think i'll be that akward son of a bitch who say's "Meh, as long as the game is good I couldn't care if it was mechs or effeminate men in tights".

It would however, be alot more awesome and immersive, if they created this type of game with a similar control to Steel Battalion.It was an awesome bundle with a chair and 100 button control or something silly like that.now THAT would be an awesome mecha MMO I would play.

Edit: My memory is foggy on all sides it seems, perhaps the way the store had a demo set up jaded my view of what was given out.Still, you could easily rig up something awesome with that.

I would love an MMORPG like this. I really would love a well-done, polished, great mecha RPG - this article was great! I could see this actually; a very fast, fragile, pilot inside a mecha robot, using it to fight enemies using guns and electricity/magnetic powers, transforming into different vehicles for transport; when you get to a city, you leave your mecha at the gate and perform your business as the fragile piolet. Fantastic!

Wizzie:I think i'll be that akward son of a bitch who say's "Meh, as long as the game is good I couldn't care if it was mechs or effeminate men in tights".

It would however, be alot more awesome and immersive, if they created this type of game with a similar control to Steel Battalion.It was an awesome bundle with a chair and 100 button control or something silly like that.now THAT would be an awesome mecha MMO I would play.

Edit: My memory is foggy on all sides it seems, perhaps the way the store had a demo set up jaded my view of what was given out.Still, you could easily rig up something awesome with that.

That's what it was, couldn't remember the game, yeah that would be pretty awesome.

Huh. I thought it was Halloween Week here. *looks at the left and right of the screen* Oh well.

OT: That would certainly be an interesting concept. Even the "license" idea has merit. However, would people in this day and age truly be interested in this, with all of the "druids" and "paladins" around the "world" today? That, I believe, remains to be seen. Until that day, we have to play what we have, even if it can't possibly be as wickedly awesome as this.

Here to fix your tiny stumble: Upon your mech being rendered inable to continue, you eject in a rocket that fires straight up, then arcs off towards wherever you'll respawn, opening up into you in a parachute to fall to the city/factory/whatever. If needed, you can make it so the parachuting down acts as a sort of death countdown by keeping them in the air for 30 seconds or however long the maker wants, and adds the benefit of spawning where they want to by adjusting their fall.

This article is a clear example of someone who never played Planetside. It literally addresses all the issues brought up. You "level up" to a new rank by killing things, allowing you to train to use new weapons armor and vehicles, if you died your consciousness is downloaded and put in a body that's newly crafted by nanomachines in the nearest respawn center. Really the only thing it's missing from what you're asking for is the ability to sit around in major cities being bored and wishing for something to do, and the requirement of using a BFR everytime you left said major city.

Please skip the middle man and title your next article "why they should make planetside 2"

That... Is a really good idea. Note to self: When I graduate and get a job tell my boss about this idea and have it made.

How about this idea Funk? When you take an extreme amount of damage to one part (like in Fallout) that part can actually be destroyed. So you want to disarm the other mechas weapons, just blow off/slash off his arms, and head if he has turrets there.How would you collect loot though? Usually when you destroy a mecha, you destroy the bloody thing.Another thing would be environment size. The environment would have to be massive, and susceptible to collateral damage.

Deshara:Here to fix your tiny stumble: Upon your mech being rendered inable to continue, you eject in a rocket that fires straight up, then arcs off towards wherever you'll respawn, opening up into you in a parachute to fall to the city/factory/whatever. If needed, you can make it so the parachuting down acts as a sort of death countdown by keeping them in the air for 30 seconds or however long the maker wants, and adds the benefit of spawning where they want to by adjusting their fall.

Bruden:This article is a clear example of someone who never played Planetside. It literally addresses all the issues brought up. You "level up" to a new rank by killing things, allowing you to train to use new weapons armor and vehicles, if you died your consciousness is downloaded and put in a body that's newly crafted by nanomachines in the nearest respawn center. Really the only thing it's missing from what you're asking for is the ability to sit around in major cities being bored and wishing for something to do, and the requirement of using a BFR everytime you left said major city.

Please skip the middle man and title your next article "why they should make planetside 2"

Oh, I played Planetside. It had some interesting ideas, but the combat never really grew on me. Besides, it had a crucial lack of giant robots. There was that one large exoskeleton you could get IIRC, but those were few and far between.

And I think "cities" are far more important than you depict here. In PlanetSide I never liked feeling like "OKAY I NEED TO GO TO THE NEXT BATTLE RIGHT NOW," whereas in games like Aion or WoW, it's possible to just chill out, socialize, do PvE stuff, work on your economy/skills. That's the sort of stuff that I really missed when I was playing PlanetSide.

I know this has already been said in the thread; but if you replace the word 'Mecha' with 'Space Vessel' and 'Laser Sword' with 'Laser Gun' then this article describes EVE Online...a game that's already been in existence for quite some time.

EVE has an equipment model that makes sense outside of a game point of view, EVE has cloning and downloading consciousness into new bodies, proficiencies and certificates for gear, and nanobot repair modules instead of healing potions.

I've had an idea like this for some time. Something like Armored Core 4 Answer, except huge and online. A semi-E.V.E. method of character growth, except that doing missions and such helps you gain exp boosts. Just the thought of running a self-built mecha around a massive desert and fighting stuff online gives me little bouts of glee.

wolfy098:Sadly...The Japanese have now started getting bored with Mecha.Americans never got into it...

Yeah they're so bored the put out Gurren-Lagann and Gundam 00 in the past couple years and now have movies for each on the way.

Oddly enough over the past year or so I've been writing up a game design document for a mecha game that had mechanics and a multiplayer idea similar to this. Not quite an MMO though. Mostly because I too got hung up on the leveling aspect, although the idea of licenses/proficiencies might work

DamnedChoir:I know this has already been said in the thread; but if you replace the word 'Mecha' with 'Space Vessel' and 'Laser Sword' with 'Laser Gun' then this article describes EVE Online...a game that's already been in existence for quite some time.

EVE has an equipment model that makes sense outside of a game point of view, EVE has cloning and downloading consciousness into new bodies, proficiencies and certificates for gear, and nanobot repair modules instead of healing potions.

Well, the thing about giant robots is they approximate humans. So you can have human-looking combat (dodging, kicks, gunfights) - everything that makes actual fights awesome - only with none of the drawbacks. Whereas EVE tends to be very PEW PEW PEW.

Yes, EVE sort of does it, but I'm thinking an aesthetic more like Super Robot Wars than like Star Wars/Trek.

I have been thinking about this the past few weeks. You have read my mind good sir! I have however been racking my mind on how this would work and I cannot imagine it working in the sense of an RPG. Unless perhaps you had two different levels of play. Take for instance Star Wars Galaxies and having your character and also having the space sim. You would level up in two different ways. However in SWG the two never met in a mecha mmo they would. I can imagine having the robot be in some ways a mount but really having it be more of your friend, your second skin in a way.

You would need that second level of play to have a mecha mmo because just having the giant robot doesnt really make it any different from any other mmo just the trees are smaller and the combatants bigger. You would need all sorts of different things such as having some players be mechanics which would give you buffs but could also create new parts for your mech. Having a two level type of play lets you allow people to do other things on a more productive and scientific level instead of simply killing but also allowing them to actively be part of the action by giving them a mech.